Gay activists launch $104 million suit against Christian for preaching at Pride Parade

TORONTO, August 17, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) -- While ‘tolerance’ and ‘diversity’ are the rallying cry of the homosexual movement, the words appear not to apply to Christians with an unconventional message. Christians led by Canadian activist Bill Whatcott were slapped with a $104-million legal threat last week after infiltrating Toronto’s Gay Pride Parade in July dressed as “gay zombies” in green skintight suits to hand out info packets about the physical and spiritual dangers of homosexual practices.

Former Ontario MPP George Smitherman, the province’s first openly gay provincial representative as well first openly gay cabinet minister, told Daily Xtra that he joined the lawsuit to “do all we can to stamp this hateful individual out.”

Jim Hughes, president of Campaign Life Coalition, has also received a notice of threatened legal action for his organization’s supposed publishing of the original LifeSiteNews report on Whatcott’s activities and for linking to the “offensive literature” that was distributed at the Pride Parade. The notice demands that Campaign Life Coalition remove the original news report or at least remove the link to the Whatcott blog. However, contrary to the letter’s claim, Campaign Life Coalition does not operate LifeSiteNews, which is a separately incorporated and managed organization.

Last month half-a-dozen Christians led by Whatcott paid the $100 fee to the Toronto Pride Parade organizers to register "Gay Zombies Cannabis Consumers Association" so that they could move more easily along the parade route to deliver their message.

While recipients thought they were being handed free condoms and sex tips they were actually receiving a pamphlet that showed graphic images of diseases associated with same-sex behaviors, including anal warts and AIDS.

“I asked them if they wanted ‘Zombie safe sex,’” Whatcott told LifeSiteNews at the time. “Everyone loved it. But, if you try to give out a Gospel pamphlet, they swear at you and throw slushies on your forehead. But, give them some wackadoddle thing that looks like a condom, and they really can’t grab it fast enough. I had three thousand out in 20 minutes,” he said.

One part of the pamphlet stated: “Natural law is clear, homosexuality is incompatible with human nature. Disease, death and confusion are the sad and sordid realities of the homosexual lifestyle. The ‘Gay Zombies’ are concerned about the spiritual, psychological and physical welfare of all potential homosexual pride attendees, so we want to give you this accurate information and encourage you to abstain from the homosexuality.”

Whatcott said that the group’s goal in participating in the event was twofold: First, to be a prophetic and unambiguous witness against the unfettered celebration of homosexuality, and second, to offer people caught up in the same-sex lifestyle a way out through a call to repent and to turn to Jesus Christ to be saved.

“Our delivery was a bit creative,” Whatcott told LifeSiteNews at the time, “but, we wanted to give people this message because it is truthful.”

Gay lawyer Douglas Elliott of Cambridge LLP — who is representing Smitherman, Christopher Hudspeth, a gay owner of a Toronto gay bar, as well as the estimated 500,000 marchers in the parade and the estimated 9,000 individuals who “received or otherwise observed” one of Whatcott’s pamphlets — disagrees.

“The conduct amounted to reckless and wanton disregard for the health of the Recipients. In this context, [Whatcott’s] behavior amounted to flagrant and outrageous behaviour that was intended to harm the Recipient class,” Elliott argued in the August 11 Statement of Claim.

Elliott called Whatcott’s pamphlets “offensive” since they contained “derogatory and hateful statements” as well as “falsehoods.” He added that Whatcott’s statements in the pamphlet where he linked homosexual activity to diseases such as AIDS amounted to “outrageous conduct that was calculated to produce harm; resulting in provable mental illness or distress.”

Whatcott called the Statement of Claim “insane.”

“The ‘harm’ that I allegedly caused through the statements in my pamphlets is, in actual fact, not harmful, since I made true statements, and true statements are not harmful,” he told LifeSiteNews.

Whatcott is no stranger to homosexuality. In his 2014 autobiography Born in a Graveyard, Whatcott reveals his experience of not only being raped by another male in prison, but of selling himself to a man to pay for his drug addiction. Whatcott makes it clear that his activism is inspired by his concern for others — based on his past — who are involved in homosexuality.

Whatcott has made a name for himself for coming up with creative ways to get out his message. In 2014 he marched in the Vancouver Pride Parade as a member of the invented Calgary Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster where he distributed pamphlets.

In 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada found Whatcott guilty of so-called hate speech for distributing flyers in Saskatchewan in 2001-02 that criticized homosexual practices.

Elliott told Daily Xtra that if the class action suit is certified, then he hopes to bypass a full trial and ask for summary judgment.

“Where a case is clear cut, there is no point in going through the expense and delay associated with a trial, [so we can] bring a motion to the court for a summary judgment and get it over with, quickly and inexpensively,” Elliott said.

Along with the fines, Elliott is seeking to have Whatcott permanently barred from coming within three blocks of Pride Parades anywhere in Canada.

The suit also seeks to determine the identities of those who financially supported Whatcott’s campaign as well as those who dressed as “gay zombies” to hand out the pamphlets.

“Those who paid for his airfare or donated Aeroplan miles to get him to Toronto, those who put him up in Toronto, the people who paid to print the pamphlets: anyone who helped him in any way could be on the hook for 100 million dollars,” Elliott told Daily Xtra.

Whatcott told LifeSiteNews that he would sooner spend the rest of his life in jail rather than betray his friends and benefactors.